January 2017

Hooray! There’s finally some structure to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, as the 43 competing countries have received their semi-final assignments. Kyiv, Ukraine was buzzing Tuesday morning as the Eurovision Song Contest held the 2017 semi-final allocation draw. In this process, the 37 countries competing in the two semi-finals were placed in pre-determined bowls based on previous voting history, then randomly assigned either the first or second half of one of the semis. Make that 36 countries: Switzerland requested and received placement in the second semi-final. Also, the Big 5 countries–France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom–along with host country Ukraine learned which semi-final in which each country will vote. Germany also requested and received placement in the second semi-final. Here is how the allocation shook out: Eurovision Song Contest 2017 First Semi-Final Half Country Artist Song First Albania Lindita Halimi Botë (World) First Australia First Azerbaijan Dihaj First Belgium Page Blanche First Finland Norma John Blackbird First Georgia Tako Gachechiladze Keep the Faith First Montenegro Slavko Kalezić Space First Portugal First Sweden Second Armenia Artsvik Second Cyprus Hovig Second Czech Republic Second Greece Demy Second Iceland Second Latvia Second Moldova Second Poland Second Slovenia These 18 countries will compete in […] [Read more…]

This week in Eurovision: Latvia’s Supernova begins while the UK and Finland make their choices. Supernova Sunday will feature the first installment of Latvia’s Eurovision Song Contest selection series Supernova. This week’s episode will be the first of two backstage and audition episodes. 22 acts will take part in this year’s competition in the hopes of keeping Latvia’s recent streak of success alive. You can watch the LTV livestream at 20.25 CET / 2:25pm Eastern. Eurovision: You Decide The United Kingdom will be the first of the Big 5 to choose their Eurovision act. On Monday, we will find out the six acts that will compete for the ticket to Kyiv. BBC Radio 2’s Ken Bruce Show will start the announcement at 10.30 CET / 5:30 Eastern. Then on Friday, those six acts will perform on Eurovision: You Decide. This year will feature a panel of three judges as well as an audience vote to determine the winner. The judges will be Bruno Tonioli from Dancing with the Stars, singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and reality competition consultant CeCe Sammy. The show will air on BBC 2 at 20.30 CET / 2:30pm Eastern. UMK Finally, Finland will make its Eurovision selection with Uuden […]

Albania selected its Eurovision entry last month and we finally have a first impression of Lindita’s “BOTË.” We’ve been busy? Albania revamped its Eurovision selection process Festivali i Kenges for 2016. First, two semi-finals whittled the field of 24 songs down to a manageable1 14 finalists. Second, the viewing public got to vote along with 12 jurors on who would win a ticket to Kyiv. A nice idea, though the home vote had zero effect on how the jury ranked the 14 finalists. Lindita Halimi’s “BOTË” had an insurmountable lead with top marks from five jurors and points from six more. She received points from the home vote, but ranked third in that category. Let’s take a listen to the selection: I am always secretly rooting for Albania and have been frustrated with many of their entries in the last few years. This is far and away their best entry since “Suus” in 2012. Lindita’s reality competition experience — including American Idol and Ethet (Albanian Idol) — shines through this performance. She manages to avoid over-singing the song despite the orchestra behind her, which could have easily tripped up anyone. We already know that this song will be reworked quite a bit between […]

Hungary’s Eurovision selection process A Dal 2017 began Saturday with 10 songs competing. Which six songs advanced to the semi-finals? Hungary has had an impressive run at Eurovision in recent years, qualifying for the final every year since returning in 2011. Part of this success could be attributed to the country’s selection process called A Dal, which has been used since 2012. A Dal 2017 began this past Saturday with the first set of 10 songs out of thirty performing for judges and the Hungarian public. After each performance, the panel of four judges offers critiques and each judge gives a score of one to 10 points. The judges are Both Miklos, Zseda, Frenreisz Karoly, and Caramel. The home audience also gets to rate the performance via the A Dal app and SMS, adding another one to 10 points to the final score. The five acts with the most points automatically move on to the semi-finals. Another round of app/SMS voting opens for the other five acts, with the winner of that vote added to the semi-finals as a wildcard. Here are the six acts that advanced following this week’s show. 1st Place (Tie) – Leander Kills “Élet” (“Life”) – […]

Hungary’s Eurovision selection process A Dal 2017 began Saturday with 10 songs competing. Which six songs advanced to the semi-finals? Hungary has had an impressive run at Eurovision in recent years, qualifying for the final every year since returning in 2011. Part of this success could be attributed to the country’s selection process called A Dal, which has been used since 2012. A Dal 2017 began this past Saturday with the first set of 10 songs out of thirty performing for judges and the Hungarian public. After each performance, the panel of four judges offers critiques and each judge gives a score of one to 10 points. The judges are Both Miklos, Zseda, Frenreisz Karoly, and Caramel. The home audience also gets to rate the performance via the A Dal app and SMS, adding another one to 10 points to the final score. The five acts with the most points automatically move on to the semi-finals. Another round of app/SMS voting opens for the other five acts, with the winner of that vote added to the semi-finals as a wildcard. Here are the six acts that advanced following this week’s show. 1st Place (Tie) – Leander Kills “Élet” (“Life”) – […]

The Netherlands selected O’G3NE to go to Eurovision in May. What should we know about the sisters as we wait for their song? Who the heck are O’G3NE? The trio O’G3NE features twin sisters Amy Vol and Shelley Vol and their older sister Lisa Vol. The name comes from their mother’s blood type and that they are three women genetically connected.1 How did O’G3NE become a known quantity? On the non-Eurovision side of things, the Vol sisters won the fifth series of The Voice of Holland in 2014. Their single “Magic,” which they performed on the finale, reached #3 on the Dutch singles chart. They also did a cover of Wilson Phillips’ “Hold On” because… obvs. That reached #86. This past September, the trio released the album We Got This, which reached #1 on the Dutch charts. Does O’G3NE have any previous Eurovision connections? Oh boy, do they. The sisters represented the Netherlands in the 2007 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. If you saw the documentary Sounds Like Teen Spirit, this was that Contest though O’G3NE was not featured. Their song was called “Adem in, adem uit” (“Breathe In, Breathe Out”): Unfortunately, Lisa, Amy & Shelley did not fare well at the Contest, finishing 11th out of 17 […]

Cyprus kicked off Eurovision selection season for 2017 by internally selecting Hovig. We don’t know his song yet, so let’s learn more about him. Who the heck is Hovig? Hovig Demirjian is a 28-year-old singer who will be representing Cyprus at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.1 How did Hovig become a known quantity? Hovig first gained notoriety in 2009 when he competed on the second series of Greece’s version of The X Factor. He made it to week 11 of the live shows, finishing in seventh place. He was knocked out of the competition by Ivi Adamou, who went on to represent Cyprus at Eurovision in 2012. <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ei_o2SzeZg0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> Does Hovig have any previous Eurovision connections? Along with Ivi Adamou, Eleftheria Eleftheriou (Greece 2012) also competed on the same season of The X Factor. After competing in Greece, Hovig entered Cyprus’ national selection for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. While his entry “Goodbye” received a middling score from the jury, it ranked second in the public vote. <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/49mYrdXqWi0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> In 2015, Cyprus held the contest Eurovision Song Project to find its representative. Hovig was one of six finalists with the song “Stone in a River.” Though […]

Happy 2017! Now that we can start saying “this year” when referring to Eurovision 2017, let’s see what’s happening this week. Israel: HaKokhav HaBa Israel will be kicking off its selection to find this year’s Eurovision Song Contest representative for Kiev. HaKokhav HaBa (known internationally as Rising Star) will begin its fourth series Monday with the first of 10 heats, with the finale expected to air March 6. The format has proved to lead to Eurovision success for Israel: the country’s four-year qualifying slump ended in 2015 with series two winner Nadav Guedj landing in ninth place with “Golden Boy.” Last year’s champion Hovi Star also reached the Eurovision final with “Made of Stars,” finishing in 14th place. Lithuania: Eurovizijos 2017 Over in Lithuania, the marathon known as Eurovizijos 2017 will start Saturday. This year, 51 participants have been shortlisted to compete for a ticket to Kiev. Among the participants are Eurovision alumni Vilija Matačiūnaitė (2013) and Sasha Son (2009). The format has been tweaked this year so that participants won’t have to compete every single week. The first four episodes will feature a quarter of the entrants singing, with only a handful advancing to the second round. The marathon runs until March […]